Fans to Get Closer Look at Plans for New Potomac Nationals Stadium

WOODBRIDGE, Va. – Area baseball fans have been promised that a new stadium for the Potomac Nationals will be a hot venue.

Now, fans will have their first, up close look at rendering of the ballpark planned for Potomac Town Center in Woodbridge later this month at the team’s annual Hot Stove Banquet.

Team owner Art Silber is expected to show new renderings of the planned 6,000 seat, three-level ballpark. The stadium will also include 12 box suites, restaurants, a lounge that will be open to the public every day of the year, and it is expected to open in 2015.

More in a press release from the Potomac Nationals:

Silber plans to elaborate upon the many unique hallmarks that will be featured within the landscape of the P-Nats’ new ballpark, including staples that will pay homage to Griffith Stadium, former home of the Washington Senators.

“We’re going to take the opportunity at our annual Hot Stove Banquet for the first time, to publicly show the detailed renderings of our new Potomac Town Center ballpark. The ballpark is incredibly exciting and its design and features will make it the finest sports venue in the greater Washington area,” explains Silber.

“Our stadium will have features that will remind fans of old Griffith Stadium. It will have three decks with a huge wraparound party deck on top with views of the Potomac River, as well as Club and suite levels. The Club will be a great year-round sports bar with views of the ballpark, river, and the Potomac Town Center.”

“We’ll have a crab shack in center field for steamed crabs and a beer garden, broad plazas, playground for the kids, and the most comfortable seats you’ll ever sit in with perfect sight lines.”

8 Responses to “Fans to Get Closer Look at Plans for New Potomac Nationals Stadium” (Leave a Comment)

Anyone see the irony of the announcement for a supposedly huge and important PRINCE WILLIAM entertainment venues being held in FAIRFAX? And it’ll cost YOU $45 to attend this announcement? Mr. Silber, you can’t find a facility in Prince William to hold this event? Is there any Single A baseball team in America that averages 1,500 fans for a weekday game and 3-4,000 for a weekend game? I’d love to see the market study that produced those statistics.

Mr. Gibson: Thank you for that schedule and I stand corrected. I never would have guessed the average attendance was close to 3,000 per game. I am very surprized by that. I went to a few games (as I am a season ticket holder to the Washington Nationals) and there is no way those games at Pfitzner had 3,000 fans there. A few hundred but certainly not in the thousands. But it is what it is. I stand corrected. I’ll shut up!

I believe you were right the first time John. The cities included in Mr. Gibson’s analysis are for the most part, either huge in comparison to the Dale City market or othwerwise very well established markets. Note the size of Brooklyn, NY, Kansas City, Sacramento, Cal., Indianapolis, Raleigh-Durham. On the other hand however, if these are realistic comparisons, then we end up with a massive traffic problem. I agree with Donna. Lets go with tradition!! Re-build The Pfitz!!! I dont believe the county can manage a 1,500 vehicle commuter lot in the stadium and pro-forma traffic levels in the immediate vicinity each night. Add to this, the unexpected issues related to the medical center directly across the street and the helicopter landing pad, and …..fill in your own conclusions!!!

As long as county taxpayers are not subsidizing this effort and traffic patterns are adapted to prevent further gridlock, I can see no reason to bash this idea. Like the Americans in Wartime Museum, this stadium faces a lot of skepticism and criticism.

I know we all cringe at the thought of big changes coupled with uncertainty. I ask you to think back to the Disney proposal that PWC residents managed to turn away. We would have been enjoying the tax benefits, saved all the infrastructure we’ve since had to provide for housing developments, while we’re watching the rural crescent we clamored to “save” being whittled away.

In the case of this stadium (and the Museum) I am taking a wait and see attitude. If these projects are failures, I will certainly be there holding torches aloft with the rest of the detractors, but I also believe in trying new ideas, creating new venues, continuing to attract tourists.

Tourism is our best opportunity to offset the residential tax burden. People coming to PWC, spending their money at our mall, eating at our restaurants and then returning to their own community, while we DON’T have to pay for schools and services for those folks? What could be better?

Connie, not just the county taxpayers (who all pay state taxes in one form or another, but all of Virginia is subsidizing this thing via the parking garage. Corey Stewart mentioned at one of the board meetings a while back that the funds for this stadium garage-come commuter parking lot were suppose to originally to go towards a commuter lot in Stafford. I’m curious as to why the change of venue when they’re already expanding the Telegraph Rd lot.

I am a resident of Springfield and attend roughly 10-20 games per year. I must say I look forward to the stadium and the much needed shade that 3 decks will provide. My family of 5 loves these games because of how close you are, the family friendly environment. (bounce houses, $1mondays, all you can eat Wednesday’s, and in game entertainment) at a much more affordable cost and less hassle than going into DC for a game. For years the only drawback was that the lack of shade made it downright uncomfortable to enjoy a day game in late June, July, and August not to mention the seats between the bases were much to narrow. The Inability to get out of the sun was probably the only reason I am not a season ticket hoder. While I agree with John Gray that the attendance seems inflated by 2 or 3times for these games, there is no denying it drew well on Saturdays (fireworks night) and their annual Fourth of July game is a mobbed every year and that every minor league team counts tickets sold or given away to sponsors in their attendance (Bowie Baysox inflate their numbers just as much). When Strasburg pitched there on rehab assignment the Pfitz should have probably been closed down by the fire marshal as people were literally sitting on the steps of the aisles. Looks like I will have even more reasons to eat dinner at Wegmans & Uncle Julio’s Rio Grande in the future. I hope the restaurants are decent at the stadium. It would be nice if Ben’s Chili Bowl returned as a vendor at the P nat games, as well as keeping NC BBQ. I am sure Wegmans marketing staff is already figuring out ways to capitalize on this. My only hope is that the Silbers don’t ruin a good thing by outpricing the market and make it less affordable for big families to attend games because it sure seems like the new stadium will be more enjoyable and much more of a “cool” destination.

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